For people with diabetes, successful management requires monitoring the effects lifestyle changes can have in both the short term and long term. Regular testing of blood glucose level (bG) is an important way to monitor such effects over shorter time frames. Portable handheld glucose meters and associated test strips have been used for years in both homes and healthcare facilities to obtain blood glucose values.
Patients and healthcare professionals may thereby track and analyze glucose measurements over a period of time to assess changes in the patient over the course of a day, week, or other desirable timeframe. For example, some healthcare professionals may instruct a patient to obtain glucose measurements seven or more times a day over a course of a few consecutive days so that patients may observe the changes associated with particular events or times of day. Structured test procedures are typically administered in an automated manner by the glucose meter. During testing, the patient is prompted to input blood samples into the glucose meter at designated times in accordance with a structured test procedure. Glucose measures derived from the blood samples are in turn properly tagged and associated with the structured test procedure being administered by the glucose meter.
More recently, diabetes management applications have been developed for use independent from a glucose meter. For example, a diabetes management application may reside on a patient's phone or another type of mobile computing device. Such diabetes management applications can likewise help the patient manage structured test procedures by reminding them to collect blood glucose measures and insuring that the collected values obey certain constraints. Unlike glucose meters, glucose measures are input manually by the patient into the diabetes management application. Accordingly, there is a need to properly manage manual data entries received from the patient in relation to the structured test being administered to the patient. There is also a need to manage the reminders associated with the manual data entries, especially in the context of an unreliable computing platform.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.